A Blessing
by entre-lagrimas-y-suspiros
Summary: Hermione/Minerva. Hermione leaves Hogwarts and Minerva behind.


Title: A Blessing

Fandom: HP

Pairing: Minerva/Hermione

Rating: R for mild references to sex.

Summary: Hermione leaves Hogwarts and Minerva.

AN: Originally this story was made-up of the first act, but I couldn't help giving it a happy ending. Enjoy.

_June_

Minerva stood on the platform of the station, and watched the train as if moved away. She usually didn't travel the few miles to Hogsmeade to see the students off but this time the train was carrying away someone very precious to her. It was carrying that someone out of her life forever. So, she had been there to see them off, to wave a final goodbye, she had needed to. She watched until the train disappeared behind a bend then she exhaled the girl's name as a prayer, as a blessing.

A blessing, for that was what Hermione had been in her life. She had been a blessing, illuminating the darkest recesses of Minerva's life for a moment before moving on.

Minerva found it difficult to breathe, difficult to turn around and walk away. How could she be expected to move and breathe with ease, when the very reason she had drawn breath for six months had left her behind?

She walked up the path towards Hogwarts, her feet and heart heavy as lead.

She could not remember when Hermione had transformed herself from pupil to blessing. Minerva only knew that one day she had addressed her as Ms. Granger and the next she had gasped _Hermione_ against the girl's ear as two fingers slipped inside her body. She had never shouted Hermione's name, not once in six months. She had never felt at liberty to do so. What they had been doing was too dangerous to allow any such liberties. She had always thought such liberties a luxury, anyway, something nonessential.

Yet, now she longed to know such a luxury. She felt desperate with the need to see Hermione's reaction as the shout rippled through her hand-in-hand with her orgasm.

Now she would never know if Hermione's eyes would widen in surprise, or if she would giggle as she had done so often during their stolen moments.

Her breathing was labored by the time she reached the Hogwarts, and her heart raced inside her chest at such a speed it hurt. She closed the gate behind her, and attributed her reaction to the mile walk from the station.

She did not rush her steps even as her heart tighten painfully, nor did she take the steps two a time though she felt that her robes were strangling her. She didn't even slam the door shut when she finally reached her rooms. Instead she quietly, slowly, let her head fall back against the door and looked up at the ceiling. Minerva closed her eyes as she felt them beginning to sting. She didn't want to cry. She had always known it couldn't last, and yet now she couldn't stop her vision clouding over as her eyes filled with tears.

When she lost the battle against her tears she felt herself slide down against the door until she sat on the floor. As a sob escaped her throat, she pulled angrily at the top buttons of her robes causing one to go flying through the air. She pushed her hand inside her robes and grasped at her breast, at the spot where she could feel her heart hammering away.

"Hermione," she gasped once more. She had done it so many times, but Hermione had always been there to hear it. Now, the empty room seemed to close in on her. Her blessing had gone, and she felt the darkness descended on her.

_October_

Hermione ordered two butterbeers, and sat down at a table near the large windows. Ginny had written her a letter a week before asking her to meet her at the Three Broomsticks for the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year. She had happily agreed since she hadn't seen Ginny for over tow months and was missing her best girl friend terribly. There were things she just couldn't bring herself to discussing with Harry and Ron, things for which she need a bit of female intuition and understanding.

She was still trying to sort her life out. She had found in the months since leaving school that life after Hogwarts was a great deal more complicated than she had anticipated. Her plans for university had gone flying out the window almost the second she had stepped off the train.

That precipitated a confrontation with her parents who were determined that she study either muggle medicine or law. Hermione had tried to explain that she would most likely live out her days in the wizarding world, but her parents would have none of it. She had moved out of her childhood home a month before when lack of understanding turned into a shouting match with her mother. Hermione knew they only wanted the best for her but after everything she had been through she could certainly make her own choices.

As she thought about her new life Ginny walked in. Hermione stood and hugged her fiercely. "I'm so happy to see you."

"Well, isn't nice to be wanted," Ginny teased as they sat down.

"You tell me," Hermione said, and passed Ginny the second butterbeer.

Ginny took a sip then frown at Hermione's tone. "Ok, tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing is wrong, Gin. Well nothing that you don't already know about."

"Really?" Ginny asked knowing Hermione was keeping something from her.

"Except that I' living in Hogsmeade now."

"What!" Ginny nearly spit her butterbeer all over the table and her companion.

"I moved out." Hermione's tone was casual, as if moving out had been in her plans all along.

"What happened?"

"My parents can't get their heads around the fact that I don't want to go to university. So, I moved out."

"I thought you had already gotten into the British Institute of Magic."

Hermione nodded. "I don't need to go to the Institute to be a teacher. I only need to pass the Ministry's certification exam."

Ginny's frown deepened. "Since when do you want to be a teacher?"

Hermione shrugged, her eyes downcast, as her cheeks turn a little pink.

"Does this have anything to do with Minerva McGonagall?"

Hermione turned a darker pink, "Keep your voice down."

"So, it does. What are you planning to do?" Maybe she wouldn't even have to push Hermione too hard to get her to admit to missing Minerva. Maybe, Ginny thought, with some luck both Hogwarts and Hermione could get their favorite professor back.

"Gin, we had this conversation a hundred times during the summer and my answer is still the same, nothing."

Ginny put her butterbeer down with a bit more force than necessary, but thankfully the pub was still half empty as most of the Hogwarts students were still wondering around the village. "Like I've told you a hundred times before that's a shitty plan."

"Gin"

Ginny ignored the warning in the friend's voice. "She isn't the same either. You're both suffering, but refuse to do anything about it."

"Gin, she isn't suffering."

"You don't know that. You haven't seen her five months. She's different Hermione. It's subtle but anyone brave enough to look into her eyes can see it. She's just existing instead of living."

The sad expression on Ginny's face gave Hermione pause, but not for long. "If she'd wanted me around she would have said."

Ginny felt like kicking Hermione under the table. "You really think so? You think she would have asked you to stay? Asked you to sacrifice your studies and your future for her. I think not."

"Ginny, that's not what I meant."

"Really? It's certainly the way anyone with half a brain would see it, and she has an above average intelligence." Ginny watched Hermione play with her bottle for a minute then continued, "Look I can understand your doubts; really I can. You need proof. I get that. So, go see her. Go see what's left of Minerva McGonagall, then tell me I'm confused."

"What am I suppose to do Gin? Am I suppose to walk into Hogwarts during classes, and ask her if she wanted more than just a handful of moments for us."

Ginny put her hand over Hermione's, "That's exactly what you're suppose to do."

_December_

Hermione had thought about what Ginny had told her for months, weighing the pros and cons to following her friend's advice. It had been more difficult than she had thought at the outset. When she had convinced herself that Minerva wanted nothing more to do with her, at least in a romantic sense, moving on with her life seem easy enough. She had put the plan in motion. She had moved on. She had herself completely convinced. Ginny burst that bubble of a lie, and forced her to see she hadn't moved on at all.

If anything she was more emotional involved now that ever before.

She had decided to be a teacher instead of going to the Institute. A decision she thought had nothing to do with Minerva, but if she was honest it had everything to do with her former professor. It had been the possibility of returning to Hogwarts as a teacher that had changed her mind. Then she had made up her mind that the best way to solve the rift with her parents over her first decision was to move out of the house. It was going to happen sooner or later regardless, but she had precipitated the moved, and now she lived in Hogsmeade. There were countless villages inhabited by wizards throughout Britain; yet she had picked the one closest to Hogwarts, closest to Minerva.

Not to mention that since she had spoken to Ginny, she had barely been able to think of anything other than Minerva. She'd barely been able to study for the certification exam.

Her life was a jumbled mess, all because of her feelings for Minerva McGonagall. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to go to Hogwarts. She couldn't go while the term was in session. She thought that Minerva, despite everything Ginny said, would not appreciate an emotional confrontation with Hogwarts full of students. So, she waited.

Now with end of term on the horizon she planned on going to Hogwarts and seeing for herself if Ginny was right or not.

_Christmas Day_

Minerva sat beside the fire in her rooms, with a cup of tea in hand thinking about everything and nothing at all. She had woken an hour later than usual, but with only three students in the castle none seemed to notice. She had done her daily rounds of the three students' dormitories, and then retreated to her rooms. She had nothing else to do until mid-afternoon, when the staff and the students would decorate the big Christmas tree and then sit down for a special holiday supper.

The holidays, which had always found her in a jolly mood, now only seem to aggravated her. She felt as if the world was mocking her loneliness with the celebrations.

She sighed and finished her tea. She wouldn't become morbid. She had never liked people who wallowed in self-pity. It was high time she stopped feeling sorry for herself. It had been six months. She resolved then to let the pain fade away with the last days of the year. She had used it to feel Hermione close, but it couldn't go on. It would stop she promised herself, like she had done so many times during the past six months. She prayed that this time she could keep that promise.

She put her cup down. She had just decided to make a fresh start, she would go down and help Hagrid pick a tree, when a soft knock sounded on her door.

Minerva gasped when she opened the door, "Hermione."

The young woman before her smiled shyly, and Minerva felt all the darkness of the previous months leave her that instant. It was as if she had been in a long dark winter and the sun had finally dawn on the horizon. She felt such happiness rush through her veins that she couldn't contain it. It exploded on her face in a smile that matched Hermione's.

"May I come in?"

Minerva nodded, still smiling, and moved aside to allow Hermione to enter. She closed the door softly, slowly, taking those precious extra seconds to compose herself. She wasn't too successful and after a few seconds her eyes' desires to look upon her love after being apart for so long won.

She turned her eyes towards Hermione and drank her in. She noticed the young woman had no problems holding her gaze. She tried to feel the same ease but she couldn't. She felt all the pain rush back and swim inside her along side the happiness that seeing Hermione had caused. She leaned her back against the door as she had done that day six months before and stared at Hermione until her vision clouded over with tears. Minerva put all her efforts into stopping the tears, but she was an unsuccessful as that fateful day and they fell marking her cheeks with streaks.

"Hermione," she gasped again as she slid down the door. She closed her eyes in a last ditch effort to stop her emotions from flowing out of her.

When she opened them Hermione was in front of her. She grasped desperately at the young woman's hands. "Is this real? Are you really here?"

She could see Hermione's face darkened with worried, "Yes. I'm right here, Minerva, and am not leaving unless you ask me to."

Minerva half laughed and half chocked on a sob. "I would never ask you to go."

"Then ask me to stay. Minerva, ask me to stay."

Minerva nodded as she wiped at her tears in an attempt to clear her vision, "Stay. Please, Hermione, stay."

Hermione used her joined hands to pull Minerva towards her and engulfed her in a hug. "I wouldn't leave."

"Promise me," Minerva begged.

"I promise. I'll never leave," Minerva felt Hermione's warm lips on one cheek and then the other, "never." She heard a soft, "I love you," before feeling Hermione's lips on her own on more.

Minerva held on, prolonging the kiss. She had been deprived for so long, but now she wouldn't need to worry anymore. Her blessing was back, and the light that Hermione shone on her life was as bright as any sun.

FIN.


End file.
